Thermaltake Core V71 Review

Thermaltake Core V71: Introduction

Today we take a look at the Thermaltake Core V71, which is one of the newest entries into Thermaltake's chassis lineup. Established in 1999, Thermaltake was and is the leading company for aftermarket cooling. The company is also largely involved with the e-sport community, making peripherals such as mice, keyboards, and headphones with a mission of "Delivering the perfect user experience". Being a well known brand has great rewards, as it can spend more time in research and development to really deliver that user experience. Thermaltake has already branched out into the power supply and computer accessories markets while keeping a steady supply of new chassis year after year.

Unveiled during CES 2014, I was eager to see what Thermaltake's newest chassis had to offer in the ever growing and expanding market. The Core V71 is priced at $159.99 MSRP, which puts it under the upper price range for a full-tower and in direct competition to Cooler Master's Stacker series. Without spoiling the rest, let's move on to the review.

Thermaltake Core V71: Closer Look

Looking at the pictures below, the chassis has an unified mesh from top to bottom, which is what all the Core chassis in the series look like. Thermaltake's other series like the Urban or Level 10 stand out from the crowed and it's good to see the Core continuing this trend. A quick rundown of the chassis from the images below and left to right. This chassis is like an onion and has many layers to be peeled away before it's all said and done.

Looking at the front, it has two exposed 5.25" bays covered by a metal mesh and behind that is a removable dust filter. The final layer is a great addition of two 200mm blue LED fans that by default are set up as push so that the chassis has a positive airflow setup. Continuing on, the back is as standard as it comes with a 120mm rear fan, eight expansion slots, and a bottom mount for a power supply. The left side panel includes a full size window, which shows off all the components so you better make sure the wiring is nice and clean. Finally, the right panel is solid and continues the rectangle extruded shape. It doesn't exactly "fit" the rest of the Core look, but there aren't many other options to choose from considering it's just a back panel that gets the least amount of attention.

Looking at the top of the chassis, there are a few goodies under the mesh. To start, at the front are all the I/O ports neatly lined up on each side, which is a design choice well suited for the style the chassis is going for. Below the top panel is a long dust filter that can be removed by grabbing it from the back and pulling it out. To give a tease of what is to come in the review, there is also a large amount of space for either three 120mm or two 200mm fans and everything in between. Don't worry, I'll cover the fan and water cooling support later in the review, this is just more of an overview.

The bottom also has the same type of dust filter on the top that covers the whole bottom vented section. In this case, the dust filter is spilt into two and removing it involves pushing down the clip to release and pulling on the filter lightly for it come out. In reverse, installing just requires pushing lightly and it will click into place.